23 outstanding ethnic minority entrepreneurs honoured

Efforts bear fruit

After having graduated from the Tay Bac (Northwestern) University, Giang A Day, a young Mong ethnic minority man in Mai Son district (Son La province) bravely gave up his intention of working as a public servant and then pursued his passion for high-tech farming.

Aged 25, Day set to build a small high-tech farming model in his homeland right after he came back from an short-time agricultural training and practice programme under the cooperation between Tay Bac University and its Israeli partners.

He poured VND90 million (US$3.960) – all his savings from his time in Israel - into building a modern vegetable farming model which is installed with a drip irrigation system. As a result, he managed to turned a two - hectare arid area into a vegetable garden unlike any fields in the district.

The first vegetable crop bring enabled him to earn VND50 million (US$2.200) from harvesting four tonnes of vegetables. The vegetable farming model created spillover effects and inspired other local farmers in the district.

“My farming model goes against the traditional farming of locals, but it comes off well. I plan to establish a farming co-operative which will get other local farming households involved in the time to come”, Day told VOV.

In other case, Ly Ta Giang, a Dao ethnic minority person in Quan Ba district (Ha Giang province) exemplified the endless efforts to ease the difficulties local farmers met in selling their herbal products.

Giang founded the Cao Nguyen Da (stone plateau) Medicine Herbs Joint Stock Company in February 2017. This firm has signed deals with three cooperatives in the district to ensure the sale and distribution of herbal products.

The firm raked in more than VND100 million (US$4,400) in monthly revenue while it plans to expand the distribution network in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City through e-commerce channels.

Day and Giang are two of the 23 outstanding young ethnic minority entrepreneurs honoured at a ceremony in Hanoi on May 23. The ceremony, jointly held The Voice of Vietnam (VOV) and the Government’s Committee for Ethnic Minority Groups (CEMG), aimed at inspiring the startup spirit of ethnic minority people and aiding them to launch startups, thus realising the sustainable development goal - “no one is left behind”.

Most of these entrepreneurs started their business in the field of agriculture and tourism. They all set a goal of solving difficulties they and their locals encounter, thus creating higher income and bettering their living standards.

Untangle bottlenecks

According to VOV President Nguyen The Ky, despite many difficulties and challenges, the startup movement has been promoted by various ethnic minority people, creating a “new wind” to leverage poverty reduction and sustainable development as well.

Information and the popularisation work act as a very significant factor to promote startup amongst ethnic minority people. Good and useful information would bring the light of knowledge to people in remote and mountainous areas.

As the leading news agency in Vietnam, VOV would maximise its efforts and work closely with the CEMG to further foster the startups movement in areas where ethnic minority groups live. VOV would reinforce the popularisation of outstanding examples and the startup spirit of ethnic minority groups on a wide range of its news units and channels, Ky said.

The "Ethnic Minority Startup" on VOV1 radio broadcasting channel is an example. Over the past year, the broadcasting programme has introduced dozens of ethnic minority entrepreneurs and their initial success to communities, thus acting as a bridge connecting ethnic minority startups to the market.

At the ceremony, Ha Viet Quan, deputy head of the CEMG Department of International Cooperation, highlighted measures to support ethnic minority people's startup.

Quan, who is also head of the working group 569 for connecting and supporting ethnic minority groups’ startup, said that the working group regularly reviews the proposals for realising entrepreneurship ideas, and team up with international and domestic partners to provide entrepreneurs with startup training courses.

“We also foster the connectivity between startups with wholesalers, supermarkets, big distributors, and many other partners from the Republic of Korea and Japan”.

Notably, the CEMG and the World Bank in Vietnam are scheduled to launch a startup competition in June, which is expected to help ethnic minority entrepreneurs gain easier access to technical and financial support. Meanwhile, focus would be placed on assisting ethnic minority entrepreneurs to apply advanced technologies into their manufacturing and business, including e-commerce expansion, Quan revealed.